Author: James A. Bacon
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I cut the cord today — I stopped subscribing to the print edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I’d been delaying the inevitable for a long time, but a 50-year habit of reading the newspaper over breakfast and coffee was hard to break. Here’s what did it for me: The print-digital subscription is $70 per month.…
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NoVa Healthcare Adapts to the Epidemic
by James A. Bacon The Washington region, including Northern Virginia, is a looming epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic. Known coronavirus cases in the metropolitan area now exceed 1,000, according to the Washington Post. And it will surprise no one to know that the number of cases confirmed by medical tests represents the proverbial tip of…
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Wartime Governor
by Chris Braunlich If Donald Trump is a “wartime president”, Ralph Northam is now a “wartime governor.” Unless one has been isolated on a Pacific isle (or wears tinfoil hats to block evil radio waves), Virginians understand that the pandemic we are in is deadly serious, growing exponentially, and requires radical steps to reduce its…
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Who’s Got ICU Beds?
As Virginians try to formulate rational COVID-19 policy, it would be helpful to know how many ICU beds there are in Virginia hospitals. We’ve got a handle on the count of acute-care beds, but the number of ICU beds, reserved for the most critically ill patients, is perhaps an even more critical. Virginia public health…
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How to Optimize the Lives/Jobs Tradeoff in the COVID-19 Epidemic
by James. B. Murray, Jr. The debate now raging over the tradeoffs between saving lives and economic disruption is clouded by oversimplification. The solutions we ultimately adopt will not be some groundless elimination of protective measures on Easter Sunday, any more than they will call for quarantining everyone, everywhere until some arbitrary date in July…
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COVID-19 Update: Ignore What I Said Yesterday, the Virus Is Going Exponential
John Butcher was right, and I was wrong. I was hoping, based on the previous two days’ worth of data and a heap of wishful thinking, that Virginia was heading up a less steep slope in the growth in the number of COVID-19 infections than widely feared. John maintained, however, that the data was consistent…
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Plan Now for COVID-19 De-Mobilization
by James A. Bacon Everyone wants to put people back to work as soon as the COVID-19 virus recedes, whether that’s month or two or three from now. In video discussion above with Dr. Alan Dow, Richmond creativity consultant Scott Wayne (at right) argues that we need to begin thinking now about how to…
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Governor Northam, Don’t Destroy the Future
by James C. Sherlock The President has just demonstrated strategic command of two ideas, combating the virus and preventing economic disaster, and is pursuing them in parallel. His background as a successful leader of a large business gives him understanding of the complexity, interdependence and fragility of the economy. He knows that already some businesses…
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Keep Cash Flowing
by Chris Braunlich The government actions taken to flatten the coronavirus pandemic will most effect the smallest of businesses, as well as part-time and lower income workers such as restaurant wait staff, and ‘gig’ economy workers without benefits For small businesses, an SBA loan (even at discounted interest) is no substitute for customers and cash…
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Cabin Fever? Red Cross Has the Cure
by Kerry Dougherty During these long and lonely shut-in days, I spend a lot of time talking to myself. For instance, I got up yesterday morning, poured a cup of coffee, took a deep breath and turned on my computer. What fresh hell awaits us today, I whispered as it flickered on. Instead of another load…
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COVID-19 Economic Impact Estimates
by James A. Bacon Thanks to its high share of federal government employment and a high percentage of jobs that can be performed remotely, Virginia is somewhat less vulnerable to job losses from COVID-19-related shutdowns of large sectors of the economy than other states, said Stephen Moret, CEO of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VED)…
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Leadership in the Time of COVID-19
We comment endlessly on the performance of our federal, state and local leaders in the time of COVID-19. It is perhaps time to discuss what successful wartime leadership at the top levels looks like without discussing individual personalities so that we have a common standards with which to measure them. I offer the following: The…
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COVID-19 Update: From Exponential Increase to Arithmetical?
Yesterday I speculated, based on the Sunday numbers (reported yesterday) from the Virginia Department of Health, that maybe, just maybe, the acceleration in the spread of the COVID-19 virus in Virginia was slowing down — the number of cases was still increasing, but the rate of increase was slowing. It other words, it was not…
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COVID-19 Waivers Update
by James C. Sherlock I provide here an update on the status of waivers of federal health care laws in response to the COVID-19 crisis. All of the source materials are official government websites. On March 13, the President declared a public health emergency under the authority vested in him by the Constitution and the…
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COVID-19 and the Fear Factor
by James A. Bacon The COVID-19 virus poses a real threat to the public health. I’m not minimizing that. According to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus map, more than 17,000 people around the world have died from the disease. But is the magnitude of the health threat so great that it warrants shutting down half…